Wild lines shut down popular giveaway at Pokemon Worlds in SF

Eager attendees of this weekend’s Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco were unable to “catch ’em all” when excessive crowds forced organizers to shut down an exclusive merchandise giveaway, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

The highly anticipated international Pokemon convention, held annually, came to the Moscone Center on Friday, bringing an estimated 50,000 attendees to the city.

Amid the cornucopia of products available to collect or purchase was a pin rally. By attending the event, and visiting designated locations throughout the Moscone Center, fans could collect 12 exclusive pins of different Pokemon including Charizard, Greninja, Incineroar, Umbreon and Jirachi – by far the most popular one. All they had to do was wait in line.

But while it was a simple task for attendees, event staff did not have the same experience. The high demand for these items became apparent as soon as the doors opened. SFGATE observed multiple visibly overwhelmed workers trying to direct the large swaths of people to safely line up for their pins. On the first day, two of the pin stalls closed for the day about three and a half hours after doors opened, and two more closed just over an hour later. Before 3 p.m., four more stalls had closed for the day.

Things got even more out of control on Saturday. San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Captain Mariano Elias told SFGATE that fans lined up by the Moscone entrances as early as 6 a.m. and created congestion as crowds spilled into the street. After marshals saw this, and heard that there would only be 8,000 pins given away for each of the next two days, they approached organizers about the issue.

“Discussions were had about another plan to control the people overflowing into the street itself,” Capt. Elias said.

While those discussions were ongoing, fans entered Moscone Center when the doors opened at 8 a.m. and once again overwhelmed staff to the point where four pin stalls were shut down within the hour. The organizers then announced at 10:13 a.m., “All Pin Rally locations are closed for today.” Then, just before 9 p.m. organizers made an announcement about Sunday: the pin rallies wouldn’t even be open

“Hello Trainer, Pin Rally is canceled for Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026,” a notification from the Pokemon Events app read. “Please check the schedule for other activities to enjoy!”

As images of the crowds circulated online, some fans shared stories about interacting with the fire department while in line, and speculated that the fire marshal had threatened to shut down the event. The San Francisco Fire Department denied making such a threat.

Capt. Elias said that organizers chose to shut down the event after talking with local fire officials.

SFGATE reached out to a spokesperson for The Pokemon Company and the organizers of Pokemon Worlds for comment and confirmation of the events, but did not hear back by time of publication.

As thousands missed out on the opportunity to collect any pins, the secondary market has looked to capitalize. Scalpers have listed unsealed pin collections on sites like eBay for hundreds of dollars if they’re incomplete, and $1,000 or more for the full dozen.

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